


Mission #514: Escape

by kinkjooheon



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, i'm not spoiling anything so no more tags, just enjoy it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-04 16:04:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11558664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinkjooheon/pseuds/kinkjooheon
Summary: Changkyun is one of the strongest knights in all Tollim, he has dedicated his life to work hard and become stronger to be able to protect the kingdom. However, everything changes when one day ―while he was exploring farther than he had ever dared to go before― he finds a tree with some words carved out:"Your life is a lie. This is a game. You can’t escape."





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! The idea for this story came to me one day a couple of weeks ago and I decided to give it a try, thinking that it was going to end nowhere, but as I kept writing I started to love the world more and more, so here it is :) Right now it's an unfinished story, but I know how it's going to end and everything (only the hard work remains to be done haha). The chapters will be /slightly/ longer than the chapters of the other fic I'm currently writing (and posting in here), so I hope you like the change :)
> 
> And that's it for now, I'm not going to keep rambling on haha. I hope you enjoy this!

**Prologue**

He was running through the dense and dark forest, his breathing hard and coming out of his mouth in white puffs. All his senses were put on whatever was following him this time. With his dark combat boots crashing against dry leaves, it was difficult to remain hidden, but at least he was wearing his brown armour, the one he had bought some days ago to explore through the forest without being caught that easily.

Changkyun quickly turned to his left and jumped behind a small but opaque bush, something that would give him some seconds of advantage. The first thing he had to know was the type of creature that had been following him for the past fifteen minutes or so. It didn’t run fast, so it couldn’t be a Loyk, but it also didn’t make any growling sound, so it couldn’t be a Tymn.

The knight ran his fingers through his matted chestnut brown hair. It was full of blood and dirt from the previous days’ combats. His face was also caked with mud and other unknown fluids, making it hard to see his soft traits and tanned skin, but now it wasn’t the time to think about that. He could go home after he killed whatever was following him and take a long and warm bath.

Crouched low behind the bush, Changkyun listened carefully but heard nothing, not even the sound of the wind blowing through the pine trees. It was as if time had stopped, but that couldn’t be. If the knight knew something it was that, even if those lands were full of mysteries and horror stories that always turned up to be real, time never stopped.

He suddenly remembered something his father had once told him: “you are only dead when the time stops.” The old man had repeated those words day after day during the last weeks of his life, but young Changkyun thought it was only a crazy man's speech.

Now he was doubting it.

His heart started pumping blood furiously, the sound of it buzzing in his ears and making it hard to concentrate. Changkyun was hard to fool. He wasn’t one of those young citizens that believed everything they heard. He was the one that, after hearing the stories, laughed about them and tried to prove that they weren’t real. Sometimes he was right, sometimes he had been surprised and nearly killed by one of the monsters that inhabited Tollim, but nevertheless he didn’t believe any story without verifying it first with his own eyes.

But, right now, even if he didn’t have any confirmation, Changkyun started believing in his father’s words. He felt strange, a hollowness growing inside his body, something he hadn’t felt before. His breathing was quick and he moved his head sharply from side to side, trying to see if anything moved, but everything was frozen.

The he heard a sound. It was like a branch breaking, just behind him, but when he turned, he saw nothing, just tree after tree until the eye couldn’t see anymore.

The knight decided to start moving again, even if the boots would reveal his position, but he had to get away from that forest. He had explored too far, until the frontier with Romm. He needed to get back to Tollim’s capital and away from this unknown land, but suddenly something caught his attention.

A few meters away there was a tree that looked just like any other tree that surrounded him, but Changkyun’s eyes, trained to see what no other person could see, have picked up something different.

He approached the tree trying not to make any sound, steps as light as he could, until he saw it. And his heart stopped.

Marked on the tree’s trunk there were two runes Changkyun knew too well. One of them was the rune of death, a rune that all citizens understood and feared, but the other rune was different, one not many people knew about. It was the rune of manipulation, an ancient rune that, supposedly, meant that your life was controlled by another person, or entity.

Changkyun’s heart started beating furiously once again, but it stopped altogether with his breathing and thoughts when he read the message that was written underneath:

_Your life is a lie. This is a game. You can’t escape._

Then he saw black.

-

Kihyun put the cloth under the warm and lemony water and started cleaning Changkyun’s face when the young knight opened his eyes. The dark haired healer could see the confusion written in his eyes before the panic struck. He swiftly moved away, mixed some herbs with grape liquor and poured the mixture in Changkyun’s mouth just before the knight was about to punch him.

The young warrior fell sleep instantly and the healer kept cleaning his face and hair, searching for any wound that could explain the fever and rapid heartbeat, but he hadn’t found anything in the past hours. The situation was exasperating him. He hadn’t let his mind run to the possibility of magic being the reason for the knight’s problems, but as time passed by, he started to weaken and he was tempted to exculpate the mages ―something no one was sure existed or not, but could really well explain this mess―.

The brown haired healer threw the dirty cloth away after another hour of research. By now, he knew the knight’s body from memory, and it was a healthy and clean body. No sign of wound, no sign of infection.

“What in the world is happening to him?” He asked out loud, trying to put his thoughts and emotions in control.

Kihyun was a passionate healer and alchemist. He dedicated his whole life to help others, and the many times he had saved a life gave himself a reason to keep living. The problem was, his passion sometimes became stress and anxiety. He felt everyone’s pain around him and that put too much pressure on him, because people actually trusted he could save everyone. Sometimes, that stress was slightly subsided when he didn’t knew the person he was curing, so he preferred those types of clients. But he knew Changkyun.

Both men came from rich families, which meant that they had studied together for some years. Even if Kihyun was three years older, that wasn’t a relevant issue with education in Tollim, because classes were structured based on intelligence, not age, and Changkyun had been an extraordinarily intelligent boy, so he had escalated classes quickly, even surpassing Kihyun ―another excellent student― during the last year.

So they had become friends, or something similar, and Kihyun had healed him before. But nothing like what was happening right now.

There was a knock on the door and a blonde guy appeared, making Kihyun smile softly and forget for a moment about the knight.

“Did you call for me?” The blonde man said.

Hoseok’s clothes were just like any other merchant male around Tollim, but there was a brightness to his eyes that could tell any perceptive man that he wasn’t a regular merchant. His strong body and hands were also another tell-tale about his possible continuous fights, something that merchants usually didn’t implicate themselves into.

“Yes. It’s him”, the healer said, signalling towards the bed where Changkyun was sleeping. “His heart is beating fast and he has a fever, but there aren't any wounds in his body.”

Hoseok moved from the door towards Changkyun and looked at the boy as if he could see his insides. Kihyun quickly explained to him that there wasn’t neither any sign of infection inside him, so the fever was impossible to explain.

“What do you want me to do?” Hoseok asked the healer, looking at Changkyun with strangeness in his eyes.

“I want you to find where he last went.” Kihyun told him, nodding as if it was the brightest plan he had ever had. “Because I found him on my doorstep this morning, but he was unconscious. Someone brought him here, but we don’t know who, or how.” The healer looked at Changkyun’s body, thinking that it should be someone strong enough to carry a muscled knight.

“That’s… Difficult.” Hoseok said, but his tone suggested that he was interested.

“I know, but I have to know what caused Changkyun’s fever. I know this guy, Hoseok, I’m not going to stop.”

Hoseok nodded at Kihyun’s words and moved towards the door ―ready to find the last place Changkyun had been seen― when the healer stopped him.

“Wait!” He said, and ran towards the blonde man. “He lost his blade, here is the sheath. It should help you.”

Hoseok nodded and took off, the door closing with a loud sound behind him. Kihyun turned and saw that Changkyun was starting to move again, his legs and arms twitching. The healer went to prepare another mixture of herbs and alcohol when he stopped hearing Changkyun’s loud breathing sounds.

Kihyun approached him and saw how the knight was no longer sweating or breathing hard. His chest moved up and down softly and his breathing was low and stable. The healer put his hand over the brown haired man’s forehead and was shocked when it wasn’t burning anymore.

Kihyun looked around him with shock written all over his face, but Changkyun’s movements caught his attention again. The knight was waking up, looking around him with confusion.

“What am I doing here?” He asked, voice croaky.

“You… You were having a fever.” The healer told him with difficulty.

“Who took me here? I don’t remember anything.” Changkyun said, and he looked small and fragile in Kihyun’s eyes, no sign of the strong knight anywhere near.

“I found you on my doorstep and you had blood everywhere I could see. You were also burning up, so I took you here.”

Changkyun nodded, but he had a tight knot in his stomach.

“Don’t you remember anything?” The healer tried.

“I really don’t.” Changkyun shook his head and looked around him, taking in the healer’s room. His eyes moved from plants to bottles of unknown liquids to different types of knifes and scissors. The room was slightly different from the last time he had been there, just a few months ago.

But then something caught his attention. It was a small drawing on one of the rocks Kihyun had in the corner. Changkyun got up from the bed and approached the rocks.

“Those are my runes.” He heard Kihyun say, but he already knew what the rocks had marked on them. He wasn’t stupid, and Kihyun knew he wasn’t stupid, so he wondered why the older guy would say something like that.

“Why do you have them?” Changkyun asked him.

“I… I like them.” Kihyun merely said, shrugging his shoulders.

Changkyun crouched in front of the pile of rocks and nodded. They were beautiful, indeed, especially the health ones ‒which he counted and Kihyun had six of them‒, but it was one of them that made his heart stop.

A small rock on the far back stood out from all the other rocks in Changkyun’s eyes, he took it and let out a strangled cry when he saw the drawing.

Because, suddenly, he remembered everything.


	2. chapter one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the kudos and the support, I truly appreciate it :) I hope you like this first chapter, and I'd love for you to tell me all your theories (I'd really love it) jsjsf
> 
> Enjoy it <3

**Chapter one**

Changkyun was seated with his legs crossed, a pile of books in front of him and another few books tossed around his legs on the floor. It was three in the morning and the only light he had was a candle burning just in front of him. His mind was spinning, trying to understand everything he was reading and connecting it to what he had experienced that day.

Three quick knocks disturbed him from his reading. Taking into account the hour it was, the knight knew who it could be. The only other person in the whole neighbourhood ―from what he knew― that woke up every day at three in the morning.

The young knight got up, his legs nearly giving up under him from the soreness of staying in that position for so many hours, and hastily walked towards the wooden door. He opened it trying not to make any sound, but failing completely.

“One day I’ll come here and I’ll find the door completely wrecked by the neighbours.” His visitor answered, openly smiling.

Changkyun couldn’t help it but smile back.

Jooheon had a beautiful smile, the main reason why all the family fathers of the capital wanted their daughter to marry him. Not only because of his job, because Jooheon's position actually meant a bunch of gold too, but mainly because he was a young man easy to love.

Just like Changkyun did.

“What where you doing?” Jooheon asked him, looking behind the knight’s shoulder with curiosity and arching his brows when he saw the pile of books. “Ah, my little bookworm. What are you studying this time?”

Changkyun swallowed, now afraid to tell Jooheon the truth. The black haired blacksmith was the person he trusted the most, even if they hadn’t know each other personally for much time. But maybe _this study_ was something he wanted to keep for himself.

Jooheon moved inside the house, pushing Changkyun away from his path. The knight quickly turned and grabbed his friend by the shoulder.

“Don’t.”

“Are you looking at sexual stories or something?” Jooheon joked, but Changkyun didn’t smile back.

The blacksmith’s face turned grave. “What.”

“It’s nothing.” Changkyun answered back.

“It wouldn’t be nothing if you didn’t try to hide it from _me_.” He remarked the last word, his trust now hurt. He trusted Changkyun, he had always told him everything. And he had thought the feeling was mutual, but now he doubted it. “Tell me, Changkyun.”

“I can’t.” The knight said, looking down.

“Tell me.”

“I’m telling you I can’t. Okay?” He cleaned the sweat that had formed on his forehead with his arm.

Jooheon merely looked at him for a few seconds before running again towards the books, this time making it hard for Changkyun to trap him with his hands.

The blacksmith took one of the books, the one that Changkyun had been reading up until the arrival of his friend, and started reading out loud.

“The rune of manipulation is an ancient rune, usually carved in dark grey or black stones to make them more visible.” Jooheon moved his stare towards Changkyun for one moment, his brow furrowed at the words. He skipped a few paragraphs that only talked about the shape of the rune until he found what the rune actually symbolized. “The rune of manipulation is always a bad news’ bringer, meaning that one’s life is controlled by another human or, in some cases, superior identity.”

Jooheon swallowed.

“I can explain.” Changkyun promptly told him, afraid of what the blacksmith could be thinking right now. “It’s not what you are thinking.”

“Then what is it.” His friend’s voice was grave now, and he dropped the book to the floor, not caring about it breaking. “Changkyun,” he pushed his friend to talk after a few seconds of anxious silence, “tell me what is it.”

“I found this rune carved on a tree this morning.” Jooheon nodded, intensely looking at Changkyun’s eyes, so the young knight decided to keep telling him what he had seen. He explained everything with sum detail, even his visit at Kihyun’s place and how the healer had had in possession another one of this runes.

“I was just curious.” He said as the last piece of explanation.

Jooheon was silent, but Changkyun knew that the blacksmith’s mind was now spinning hard, trying to understand what had happened.

“So…” He started after a couple of minutes of silence, where the two of them had stood motionless, the light of a candle making their faces look even graver. “What do you have in mind, Changkyun?”

The tone of his friend scared Changkyun the most, because Jooheon was serious about it. Just like him. Finding two manipulation runes in the same day couldn’t be a coincidence, and much less taking into account the words he had read in the forest.

Those were the biggest problem. The words. They had been running around his mind the whole day, and he had tried to decipher them a hundred times, trying to rewrite them with another order, think if they could be ambiguous, trying to decipher what they really meant… Everything. But he didn’t have an answer yet, so these past few hours he had decided to read about the runes instead. Especially about the rune of manipulation.

“Changkyun.” His friend snapped two fingers in front of him. “What are you thinking?”

Changkyun inhaled deeply.

“Right now, Jooheon, I’m thinking that our entire lives are a lie.”

-

**_Two months before._ **

_Jooheon just wanted to go home and fall asleep. This new job was making him depressed, the energy that had always characterized him had suddenly disappeared. Waking up every morning before the sun even rose, earlier than anyone around the neighborhood, wasn’t the worse part, but it was one more issue to add to the long list. He had to work until the sun set, and that was the worst part. The long working schedule was well paid, but it was making his health worse as the days passed._

_He had always dreamed about becoming a blacksmith. His parents had always laughed at the idea, since they both were teachers and wanted his son to be something related to the world of words and knowledge as well, but Jooheon had always been a kid that loved working with his hands rather than his brain._

_So since the moment he created something in his uncle’s forge, his first weapon ―if the two-pieced iron bar could be considered that much―, he wanted to keep creating._

_And now that he had reached his dreamt position, being the blacksmith in charge of the whole forge, he didn’t know if living off teaching some kids was better. It looked less tiring, that was for sure._

_But he had to keep going. One day, he would have enough saved money to live solely off of it, so it was just a matter of time. Taking into account the big sum of money he earned every day now, he calculated that in ten years he could be completely free, and_ that _took a weight off his shoulders._

_He was walking down the street towards his small house now. He had moved out of his parent’s household a couple of months before, wanting to be more independent to show them that he was good enough ―even if he didn’t dedicate his life to spreading knowledge―, and he had taken a small cottage by the west side of the capital, Mollovin. He loved the city, it had enough citizens to be considered a big city, but it was quiet one, especially during the nights. If one thing could be said about Mollovin citizens was that they hated the sound during the night._

_And that’s exactly how he got to know a handsome young knight._

_The knight fell down the stairs of ―Jooheon assumed― his porch, making a strident sound with his armour. Jooheon instantly ran towards him, taking him by the armpits and helping the guy stand up. The armour looked heavy and uncomfortable, so Jooheon felt empathy for the knight and counted up to ten while praying that no one would frenzy over the sound._

_“And ten.” He said out loud, and opened his eyes at the realization that he had said it out lod, now praying that the knight hadn’t heard him._

_He didn’t have that much luck._

_“What?” The knight’s voice was grave and velvety._

_“Nothing, I was just thinking a loud, sorry.” He excused himself with a smile, pushing his fingers through his_ really _short black hair._

 _Jooheon liked to be practical, so he always cut his hair really short so that it lasted, well,_ short _a long while and he didn’t have to think about it. And especially so that he didn’t have to comb it. He had tried to wear it long once, because he actually thought that it looked really cool when men wore it like that, with braids and buns, but he wasn’t born to be that dedicated to his own image. He preferred to sleep rather than take care of his looks, and cutting his heart really_ really _short was a great to sleep in more, around twenty minutes more every morning. At least, that was the time he had spent styling it when he wore it long, but it had only lasted three days._

_His mom had been sad when he had showed up with his hair shorter than ever that night, but Jooheon knew that the opinion of his mom wasn’t important, his own commodity went first._

_Now was one of those days where his hair looked really short, just how he liked it._

_“I do that sometimes, too.” Changkyun said, smiling briefly, but Jooheon knew it was a lie to make him feel better about his slip._

_And he liked that._

_“I’m Lee Jooheon, man. What about you?” He asked the man, extending his hand and showing him the brightest smile he could master._

-

“Hey, hey!! You idiot!!” He stirred the man sharply, trying to wake him up. “Wake up, you damn silly idiot!!”

“You know that you have used two synonyms trying to insult me, right? That makes _you_ the idiot.” His words were muffled because of the pillow, but the other guy was quick to throw it out of the bed.

And then he tried to throw his friend too.

“One of them has done it.” He said, breathing hard after trying to move his friend out of the bed without much luck.

“Done what.” The sleepy guy asked, uninterested.

“Are you even listening to me?” The first guy shouted, snapping his fingers exaggeratedly in front of his friend’s face. “One of them has discovered _something_.”

The sleepy guy suddenly opened his eyes, realizing what his friend said.

“Oh my god.”

“That was the reaction I wanted, thank you.”

“Sorry, I was asleep.”

“I saw.” His friend murdered him with his eyes.

“I could kill you”, he said.

“Not now. Come with me.”

Both of them hurried down the stairs and towards the room where they planned everything, they own laboratory of a kind.

“See it with your own eyes.” The first guy said, and sleepy-head watched it.

And stopped breathing from the surprise.

-

“What do you mean, Changkyun?” Jooheon was clearly confused with his best friend’s attitude, but his own heart was racing hard. He was afraid, but he didn’t know exactly why, because he didn’t know anything more apart from the fact that his friend had spent the night reading about _runes of manipulation_.

“I mean that our world, Jooheon… There’s something wrong with it.” The knight’s voice sounded off and his eyes were unfocused, pinned at the wooden ground.

“Could you be less cryptic?”

“This is hard, okay?”

“I know it must be hard, but try. I want to help you.” Jooheon approached his friend, but Changkyun took one step back. Jooheon’s gut clenched at the rejection, but he didn’t say anything.  Not now. His friend went first.

“Okay, I’ll try to say it out loud. But it’s hard.” Jooheon nodded, encouraging him. “I’m not sure yet, and maybe you will think I’m going nuts, but… I think our world isn’t the _real_ world.”

Jooheon blinked.

And stood silent.

Then blinked again, staring at his friend with a mix of confusion and disbelief.

“What are you even talking about now, man?” His smirked a bit, but it was a shaky smirk.

“Be serious about this, please. I’m being serious.”

“Then be clearer.”

“Fuck, I just mean that this world isn’t real. That there must be another world out there, and we are _controlled_!” He screamed, lost at the thought.

“You are nuts.”

And Changkyun’s heart broke at the words. “What?” He softly asked his friend.

“Try to sleep, we will talk tomorrow.” Jooheon said, and patted him on the shoulder before strolling off the room. The door banged as it closed behind him, and Changkyun jumped at the sound.

“Maybe he’s right.” He said to himself. “Maybe I’m going nuts.” He inhaled deeply. “I better go to sleep.”

-

“Did you find anything?” Kihyun asked Hoseok as he opened the door.

The spy looked at Kihyun, but didn’t open his mouth.

“Hoseok?”

“I’m going to sleep.” He harshly answered.

“Hoseok, tell me what you saw.”

“I said I’m going to _sleep._  I will tell you everything tomorrow, okay?” The last word sounded softer.

Kihyun nodded, heart beating fast at his friend’s secrecy. But, being honest to himself, he was used to Hoseok being closed about everything he saw.

He just had to give him the time and the space, and then the older man would come and tell him everything. It was a matter of patience. Their whole relationship was a matter of patience, but Kihyun didn’t mind.

At least, not much.


End file.
